I made the switch from an Android Sony to a Lumia 530 this Christmas. Apart from the LCD TN screen the Lumia is easily the best phone I've ever had at half the price.
Unfortunately there's one key problem which means I won't be getting another one - I have no way of getting an offline copy of my phone backups.
I didn't realise for a while after purchase and it's not such an issue to make me immediately want to get a new phone, but I refuse to relinquish that control by choice.
"Cliff Simpkins (Sr Product Manager, Windows Developer) responded:
Currently, the platform provides a number of SMS Access from a system eventing perspective (as of Windows Phone 8.1), and Windows Phone supports sms backup/restore for consumers as part of the base OS (Settings Backup). What we don’t provide is a backup API."
The only backup offered is in form of Outlook cloud, there is no way of retrieving your backup from the cloud, you can only restore into another windows phone device. If you happen to have non Lumia device and want data you need to first backup to cloud, then restore into Lumia branded phone (that you bought/borrowed for the occasion), and then backup again using Lumia proprietary backup app that lets you store locally. YAY M$
I know I very rarely use my phone for phone calls. For me, it's all about apps and the capabilities those apps have.
My own phones have all been Nexuses. The reasons being that I consider Apple fascist[1], and Android is the only alternative with the combination of lots of apps and a way of replacing both launcher and default applications with third party apps.
As far as I know, Windows Phone's launcher can't be switched out, in fact I just did a quick search and it seems like not even the default browser can be replaced! It looks like Windows Phone is almost as restrictive as Apple, except with fewer apps. How would that make for a better phone, never mind "easily the best"?
Now, I'm no fan of Google, and I don't like the direction they're taking Android in, cutting down the functionality of AOSP, and dragging more into their proprietary apps and libraries. It's just that Android is the least worst choice right, now, as I see it.[2]
[1] Controlling, capricious, patronizing, "do it our way or get lost" mentality; and a brand that is a magnet for narcissists everywhere.
[2] MS primarily cares about money; it's copying Apple because it sees Apple making money. But Apple doesn't care about money; it thinks it's better than you, and it attracts people who like to think of themselves as better than other people, with more discerning taste in expensive status symbols. Making lots of money is a side-effect of Apple's strategy, because it's harnessing a narcissism latent in modern individualistic consumer society. MS's strategy won't work because it's not appealing to narcissists. Google, meanwhile, is following Microsoft's 1980s strategy to Apple's 1980s strategy.
First, I don't think MS is "copying Apple". Using Live Tiles is a very different experience than poking at icons on the iPhone. And MS isn't marketing to "narcissists" -- the best selling Windows Phones are all at the very low end of the market. The fit and polish you can get on a low-end Windows Phone are absolutely phenomenal. I bought one just to play with because Amazon had the Lumia 520 for $29 during the holidays, and got hooked on the platform. Now I'm buying a slightly higher-end model and passing along the 520 to a relative who is still using a flip phone.
As a developer, there are a ton of opportunities on the Windows Phone market. It's relatively small, but the key word there is relatively. There are a lot of open niches and a userbase that is hungry and appreciative.
My primary phone is an iPhone. It has the apps. It mostly just works. However, an interface of "a bunch of icons" or "a bunch of icons in folders" is a really tired interface.
I'd like to see better innovation from the UI/UX on the iPhone, but we really don't get much beyond a flatter theme. (this is not to take away from all the advancements happening under the hood).
I'd like some combination of the Windows Phone interface with a blend of features from IOS and Android.
This trend bugs me to no end. I call a lot, I need a really robust, integrated phone app on my phone.
This is precisely I moved away from iPhone to Xiaomi after years of being with iOS. iOS 7 dumbed down the phone app so much, it was unusable for me. Xiaomi on the other end, is probably the most powerful phone for calling purposes that I've used, one click call recording, seamless conferencing, speed dials, auto-detection of which number I use of a particular contact most often (and the one I used last time, right with search results). It is so powerful, meanwhile iOS 7 did away with search using keypad. In iOS 7 and beyond, to make a call, I have to peep into my 2000+ contact list.
From what I know, Windows 8.0 and 8.1, too, has fantastic feature rich phone apps.